Wednesday, 11 September 2024

The Islands in the Bay – Chapter (165) The Christmas Party Event

 

Also at the Christmas Party Event held at the Beaumont Manor Hotel party was Church Warden of St Joan of Arc Church, Guy Millar and the staff of his travel agency and Librarian Augustine Poyle and her colleagues

They were both in their mid-forties, neither of them were married or had been and they both attended the same Church.

She was slim and elegant with auburn hair, but dressed on the side of frumpy, he was tall, with a military bearing, light brown hair, blue eyes and a smile that melted Augustine Poyle’s heart the first time she saw it, and if that alone hadn’t been enough to catch her eye, Guy was also an immaculate dresser, Blazer, Slacks, collar and tie, finished off with tie pin and cufflinks.

Some people at Church made fun of him behind his back about the way he dressed but Augustine liked it.

She liked him and she knew he liked her too, so she intended to get his attention at the Christmas Party.

 

When Augustine entered the hall, it was teaming with an array of stunningly turned-out men and women, but she couldn’t immediately see Guy however, but while she stood on the periphery of the throng her heart skipped a beat when she first caught sight of his dapper upright figure.

“Wow” he said, as he turned around “you look stunning”

Because there was nothing frumpy about Augustine’s outfit as she was immaculately dressed in a full-length blue designer evening dress.

 

Among the other guests were a group of lifelong friends including April Portnall who was half an inch shorter than five feet, with Jet-black hair and alabaster skin, and it was at the party that she met Eric Hilton for the first time, and she fell hard for him.

She had had crushes before, but she had never been in love, but when she first saw Eric, it was like a switch being flicked inside her heart.

 

In the closing minutes of Saturday Night, after spending much of the evening dancing together, when the party was coming to an end April took a deep breath and asked

“Do you want to meet up for coffee in the morning?”

“I can’t” he replied, and her heart sank “I have Church in the Morning, it’s the Second Sunday of Advent”

She knew that Eric was a musician and that he played for the Church band, but the Portnall Family had not been churchgoers, so she said

“I don’t know what that is, is it important?”

“Yes” Eric replied and then explained its significance

“Could I go?” she asked

“Anyone can go” Eric replied

“Could I go with you I mean?”

“Of course, you can” he said and smiled

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